Putting Rhythm

4 05 2010

Do these seem like some of the thoughts you have when you are over the ball?  I need this putt to save par.  I have already three putted twice today.  If I two putt, I can finally break 80.  My partners will think I stink if I can’t make this three-footer.  I hope I take the putter back straight. I hope I make it.  This line does not look right to me.

This is your conscious mind interfering with your stroke.  None of these thoughts will help you putt better.  Putting to a beat will keep your conscious mind occupied and let you make an athletic stroke.

I always count when I putt.  I count to 5.  The count is as follows:

1)    I put my putter next to the ball

2)    I look at the hole

3)    I look at the ball

4)    I make my backswing

5)    I make contact

Buy yourself a metronome and find a beat that you like.  Start the metronome at 72 beats per minute and see if it fits your internal rhythm.  If you are a faster paced person, increase the beats per minute and if you are a slower paced person, decrease it.  Once you find your personal beat, stick to it and simply count when you putt.

This applies to all length putts.  The rhythm is always the same.  Your stroke will be shorter for short putts and longer for long putts.  Putting to the beat will free your mind up to perform.  All golfers experience pressure when they play.  A routine allows golfers to perform even when they experience extreme pressure.

I had a downhill-sidehill 4 foot putt for par on the 11th hole at Pebble Beach in the 1992 U.S. Open.  The greens were so fast that if the putt missed, I was going to face a 45 foot come-backer from the front fringe.  In short, the pressure was on as I was fighting to make the 36 hole cut.  As I got over the putt, my conscious mind started to think about the consequences.  I backed off the putt and committed to count to the beat.  I nailed the putt right in the center of the cup.  I was also willing to live with the consequences if I missed as long as I was committed to the routine.

Find your beat and enjoy some great putting experiences.


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Take My Advice

19 04 2010

Have you noticed that golf is as game with almost as many teachers as players? Everyone seems to know what to tell you when you hit a bad shot. They all have a tip that is going to turn your game around. This is even more prevalent if you are a woman. A friend of mine once said that he was going to design a woman’s golf shirt with the words “Don’t tell me what to do” printed on the back. The tips I hear friends giving friends are keep your head down, keep your left arm straight, swing slower and a slew of others. When golfers are playing poorly, they become so desperate that they will listen to anyone. Stop!!!!! The only person you should listen to is your own professional. Would you take legal advice from someone who is not an attorney? Would you take medical advice from someone who wasn’t a doctor?

Here is my professional advice and remember, I am a golf professional. Only take the advice if it will improve your ball flight or your impact. Just doing something because the best player in your club does it or because you heard it on TV does not mean it is right for you. Even if it is something Tiger does, it may not be right for you. When someone gives you advice, ask them the following question: “How will this tip help my impact position and my ball flight?” If they can’t give you a reasonable answer, don’t try it. You should ask your own teacher the same question. It is their job to know cause and effect.

The only reason “tips” from friends work sometimes is that it frees your mind from the other 10 other things you were thinking about during your swing. Believe me, playing golf from tip to tip is a recipe for disaster. Your mind will become so confused that you will be paralyzed over the ball. Keep it simple. Listen only to your teacher and stick to the plan. My mentor Jim Hardy once said that one of three things is happening if you are not getting better after receiving advice. First, you understand the advice but simply did not execute. Second, you did not understand the advice. And third, the person gave you the wrong advice. I’ll leave it to you, what are the chances that your friend gave you the right advice? Friends have great intentions but their advice usually leads to having to book another lesson with your instructor.  -jz


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Releasing the Putterhead

10 04 2010

There are so many ways to putt well.  Bobby Locke hooked his putts. Billy Mayfair slices his putts. Crenshaw has a long, flowing stroke.  Azinger has a short, pop-like stroke.   And Tiger has perhaps the simplest stroke I have ever seen.  All of the aforementioned putters have made their fair share of putts and all have one fundamental in common.  They all accelerate into the ball.

All golfers know that it is important to accelerate into impact.  This is an important fundamental in the swing as well as in putting.  If we all agree that acceleration is important, then we should all understand that accelerating the putter means that the putter has to release past the hands.

Too many golfers believe that the stroke is controlled by the shoulders and that the hands need to stay quiet.  Keeping your hands and wrists locked produces a block which leads to poor contact and deceleration.  Your hands are your only contact with the club.  The key is to use your hands and wrists correctly rather than eliminate them from the process.  When throwing a ball underhand, the hands and wrists remain soft and active in producing the throw.  This is an athletic motion and so is putting.  To feel the correct motion, simply anchor your putter to your belly and let the putterhead swing.  Can you feel what is happening to your hands and wrists? This is a release!

I personally can’t believe that USGA has allowed belly putters as they make putting so much easier.  You can’t block your putts if you let the putterhead swing while keeping the grip end anchored to your body.  If you have a short putter, I recommend building a belly putter to match so you can practice the release.  All you have to do is take your short putter to a club builder and have him use the same lie angle and build one long enough to reach your belly. Once you learn the feel of the proper release, your putting will improve tremendously.


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Hip Turn

28 03 2010

Have you ever hit balls at the range next to someone who made an awesome sound when they hit the ball?  That sound is compression.  It makes other players turn and watch because obviously this is a great ball striker.  The player has made his divot past the ball and transferred the energy efficiently from the clubhead to the ball.  Distance control is one of the keys to scoring.  Great golfers don’t always hit the ball accurately but they often hit the ball pin high which means they are making solid contact.   Proper hip action on the backswing plays a major role in compressing the ball.

A common swing thought is to transfer your weight to your right side on the backswing.  Unfortunately, most players sway their hips back to do this causing fat and thin contact.  The key is to allow your hips to truly turn, not sway.  Think of your belt buckle as the center of your hips. If your hips turn around this center, your right hip will actually move towards the target during the backswing.  This does not mean you are reverse pivoting as your spine angle should not tilt towards the target during this movement.  In order to make sure of this, make sure your head is still or even moves a little away from the target during the backswing.

The focus of this video is the hip turn on the backswing but compression will only occur if you move your hips correctly on the follow through.  The downswing should start with a slight bump of the left hip towards the target.  You will hit the ball even longer if you can get this bump to happen before your upper body completes its backswing turn.  This will set up the proper kinematic sequence for the downswing.  Like any sport where you hit a ball with a stick, the movement starts from the ground up.  Proper hip motion on the backswing will help you set up this efficient downswing sequence.  If you do, you may just be that guy on the range who causes heads to turn.


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Consistently Good Alignment

23 03 2010

I want to be more consistent!” I hear this from so many of my students. Consistency is almost impossible in the game of golf. Even Tiger can shoot 62 one day and 72 the next. Is that consistent? The bottom line is that we are human, and our bodies are different every day. We do our best to swing consistently, but it does not always happen. That is what makes the short game so important, as it helps us make up for full-swing mistakes.

The one place I think a golfer can be consistent is what he does before he hits a ball. The way I look at it, poor aim and alignment is a mental error while hooking or slicing is a physical error.

You should practice alignment like you would practice your swing. If you go to a tour event, you will see all kinds of alignment aids on the ground on the practice tee. Tour players are so good that they can make their balls go to the target even with poor aim and alignment. Unfortunately, they have to alter their swings to make this happen, which eventually leads to poor swing mechanics. Setting up correctly matches up with good swing mechanics, and now you are well on your way to better golf.

It is important to realize that on the golf course, we tend to aim and align ourselves based on our ball flight tendencies. If you are a right-handed golfer who hooks the ball, you will tend to aim right. If you are right-handed golfer who slices the ball, you will tend to aim left.  In short, correct aim and alignment does not guarantee good swing mechanics, but it helps! My recommendation is to spend some of your practice time with an alignment aid so it becomes more second nature on the golf course.

The players with the best alignment tend to be the straight hitters. Annika Sorenstam and Fred Funk tend to be good aimers. They also tend to hit a very straight golf ball. Spend some time with your teacher learning how to swing on plane and square up your clubface at impact. Hitting it straight will lead you to better aim and alignment as well.  I’ll never guarantee consistency, but I’ll guarantee that improved aim and alignment will lead to better golf.


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Swing myths

9 03 2010

How many times have you heard keep your head down? Don’t do it! What I am saying may sound like heresy but all you have to do is look at tour players and see that they release their heads on their follow through.  What do Annika Sorenstam, David Duval and Robert Allenby have in common? They all release their heads before impact. They are actually looking at the target before they hit the ball. They are not even close to keeping their heads down. They do maintain their spine angles but releasing their heads makes their bodies explosive through the hitting zone. I am not saying you have to exaggerate as much as these players but realize that every tour player is looking at the target on the follow through. If you cannot see your ball flight immediately, your head is down too long.

How many times have you heard swing slower? If you swing slower, your ball will go shorter! I have been teaching for 15 years and almost every student has asked me for more distance. You cannot hit it farther by swinging slower. If you have a technical fault in your swing, slowing down is not going to fix it. Fix the mistake and then speed up your swing to get distance. Don’t confuse slow with smooth. Ernie Els and Vijay Singh are smooth swingers but they are not slow.

How many times have you heard to hit down on the ball? This advice may be the reason 90% of golfers slice the ball. While good ball strikers do compress the ball, it is a function of having a forward leaning shaft and their weight shifting correctly through impact which creates a divot that is past the ball. If you look at the spine angle of a tour player from the face-on point of view, you will see that every one of them has a spine angle leaning backward away from the target. This is the same spine angle you would create if you were going to throw something up in the air. Golfers misinterpret hitting down on the ball by swinging down steeply which creates deep divots, pulls and slices. Try swinging up on the ball and you will become a drawer of the golf ball.

Before taking any swing advice from friends or golf professionals for that matter, always ask the following question. Will this advice help my ball flight and impact? If so, go for it but beware of swing myths!


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Wrist position at the Top

28 02 2010

Be careful about taking swing advice from your fellow golfers. One of the tips I often hear golfers giving is to flatten your left wrist (for right-handed players) at the top of the backswing. Does this apply to you? Well there is only a 33% chance it does. If you are slicing the ball, flattening your left wrist will help. Do not take this advice if you are hitting it straight or hooking the ball as flattening your left wrist will close the clubface and make the ball go more left.

As you can see in the video, the position of the left wrist at the top of the backswing has a lot to do with how you grip the club. If you have a strong grip, your wrist should look cupped at the top. If you have a neutral grip, your wrist should be flat or slightly cupped at the top.  If you have a weak grip, your wrist should be flat to slightly bowed at the top.

I look at the golf swing as a recipe of many different ingredients. After we pour all these ingredients into our pot of boiling water, we are looking for the end product to be a solid golf shot with the desired ball flight. As an instructor, I love the challenge of putting the puzzle together to help my students achieve their desired results. Every piece of advice I dole out has an effect on the quality of the shot. I never give advice to make something look prettier or because it is the latest swing fad. I give advice to help your game and it has taken years to learn the cause and effect of each ingredient.

So are you willing to take advice that may or may not be correct from a “helpful” friend? I feel like I have invested a lot of time, effort and money on my golf swing. I will only take advice if the person can give me a good explanation of cause and effect. Find a teacher you trust and stick to the plan. If you do, your recipe will turn out delicious!!


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Become a Great Pitcher

21 01 2010

Pitching seems to be one of the toughest shots for the amateur golfer. The shot will become easy when you understand the role of the bounce. The bounce is the trailing edge of the club as you can see in the video. We can thank Gene Sarazen for inventing the bounce on the sand wedge. He designed it to help hit bunker shots and pitch shots. The bounce enables the club to slide along the ground which helps avoid chunking the ball. I actually try to hit the ground before the ball on my pitch shots and the club slides right on through and I get a high soft shot as a result. This is really helpful in deep rough when you can’t contact the ball cleanly. You can hit this shot much like a bunker shot where you hit the ground two inches behind and let the bounce slide right under the ball.

Before hitting this shot, I would recommend that you have a neutral to a slightly weak grip. The reason is that a weaker grip leads to a more open/lofted clubface which will ensure that the bounce hits the ground. Any grip that enables you to close the clubface will hurt you on a pitch shot as this will send the leading edge below the bounce resulting in the dreaded chunk. There is nothing wrong with having a grip for your full swing and another to hit short game shots.

64 degree wedges are fun but if you want to get really good at pitching, try doing it with your 3 iron as I demonstrate in the video. You need some flexibility in your hips to get as low as I do but flexible hips help your all-around golf game so start stretching. You will impress your friends pitching with a low-lofted club and it will make pitching with a lob wedge a piece of cake. Seve Ballesteros grew up with one club. It was a cut down three iron. He became known as the best short game player in the world.  -jz


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Golf Shot Tracking on MySmartGolf.com

20 12 2009

As a golf instructor, I am amazed at how little many students know about their golf statistics.  They are good at tracking golf scores but they don’t have a program for tracking their game.  Without golf shot tracking, how can you organize your practice time?  In order to help students understand their personal golf statistics, I co-founded MySmartGolf, the best golf game tracking program you can find online.

Golf shot analysis starts with effort on the part of the player.  Remember, this is all about your golf round statistics.  The MySmartGolf statistics program enables the golfer to enter personal stats on every aspect of his or her game.  We even include a golf statistics scorecard to make golf statistics tracking as simple as entering some notes as you enter your score on your regular scorecard.

Once we have your online golf stats, MySmartGolf’s golf shot analysis begins.  This is where the fun starts.  Our golf stat tracker displays your golf round statistics in a clear and easy-to-understand display.  Furthermore, our program will offer analysis through personal emails and refer you to golf video instruction on shots ranging from the short game to the full swing.

Golf team stats are easy to keep as well.  A coach can analyze and track golf team stats for both tournament rounds and regular rounds.  Our golf stat keeper enables the coach to rank players in 20 areas of the game.  A player may not have the best golf scores but may be the best putter or chipper on the team.  When keeping golf statistics, players can take pride in leading the team in certain categories.

Golf shot tracking and golf statistics tracking has never been easier!  We look forward to helping you track golf stats and improve your game at www.mysmartgolf.com, the best golf shot tracking and golf statistics tracking site on the web.  -jz


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Keep it Square

15 11 2009

Everything in moderation is a pretty good philosophy in life and it is in your golf game as well. Opening your stance for short game shots is ok if it is done in moderation but opening it too much leads to disaster. Setting up too open leads to glancing blows, pulls, chunks and excessive sidespin on your short game shots. More importantly, it seeps into other parts of your game which leads to inconsistency.

I recommend putting a shaft down on the ground to monitor your alignment. It will give you the sense of what is square so when you remove the club, anything other than square will feel awkward. If square is your baseline, you are setting yourself up for success. Setting up square leads to solid contact due to an on plane swing. Your ball will come off with pure backspin and an absence of sidespin. You hear people talk about trying to get the ball within a three foot circle in order to have a good chance at getting up and down. I try to hole all my short game shots. Knowing that my ball will have a predictable bounce because of pure backspin enables me to give the ball a good chance of going in. I even read the green on my chip shots much like you would on a lag putt. If your goal is to hole your shot, chances are that if it doesn’t go in, it will be inside that three foot circle.

The key to scoring in golf is predictability. Whether you are a hooker or a slicer, you can plan your aim and find the fairway if you know beforehand how your ball will curve. Setting up square will give you predictability of distance control because of your solid contact and predictability of direction due to square spin. Now go practice and hole some short game shots. -jz


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